El Paso City Council to revisit ban on ‘unnecessary’ veterinary procedures
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- During an El Paso City Council meeting Wednesday, councilmembers voted to revisit the topic on banning surgical procedures on domestic animals with no medical necessity, including aesthetic procedures like "taildocking" and "ear cropping."
In a four to three vote, council choose to come back at a later date and ask city staff to conduct research about the procedures and come up with a plan for getting input from interested parties, the Local Veterinarians Associations and Animal welfare advocates.
"Then to come back to us to present that research so we can give them further direction for potential ban or not, depending on what we hear back from them," said District 8 City Representative, Chris Canales, and author of the item.
Some animal welfare advocates, who spoke during public comment, expressed concern over the repercussions of passing an item like this.
"I'm not against the fact that we should do this, what I'm against is how it's going to affect the, people's pets in the future," said Ron Comeau, member of Lucy's Dream Rescue. "I'm concerned we're going to cause more damage by limiting their ability to take them to a facility that's properly trained to do these procedures."
